Taylor Swift Tells Rising Artists To Stay Away From Social Media Comments

Taylor Swift is encouraging rising artists to stay away from reading social media comments too closely.

During a conversation with The New York Times about songwriting, the “Shake It Off” singer explained that although criticism can sometimes become a “creative writing prompt,” constantly checking comments online can leave artists overwhelmed by negativity.

“My favourite thing when I sit down with new artists or songwriters, I'm like, ‘Why are you reading your comments?’ Like, that's too much of it,” she said. “You're inundating yourself with too much criticism that doesn't really have a focus. But a little bit of it, you've got to just be like, this is part of (the job). Like, don't make this make you stop writing or make you edit yourself or whatever.”

Swift, 36, also shared that she often tells other musicians to channel criticism into music instead of firing back at people online or posting long responses in the Notes app.

“If it's an interesting point to you to kind of respond to, then that's a gift for you to be able to write something. Maybe you wouldn't have written something that day,” she continued. “But don't go to the Notes app and post it, like write (a song) about it. Make art about this. Don't respond to trolls in your comments. That's not what we want from you. We want your art.”

The global superstar went on to say that criticism has inspired some of the biggest songs throughout her career. She pointed to her 2014 hit “Blank Space,” saying it likely would not have happened without people constantly focusing on her dating life and creating “slideshow” style narratives about her relationships.

Speaking about her 2022 track “Anti-Hero,” Swift added, “That song doesn't exist if I don't get criticised for every aspect of my personality that people have a problem with or whatever.”